Hi,
Why do most marathon schedules have a final mesocycle (before the race) of VO2max where I understand you cannot improve your VO2 max to any significant degree (Pfizinger & Douglas) and if you read P&D, they tell you the priority and importance of sessions are: long / endurance followed by tempo / lactate and then VO2max? I have no doubt these guys know what they are talking about (!) but I do not understand why it would not be better to replace VO2max with tempo / lactate (up to 40 mins) where you can improve lactate significantly? P&D tell you the success of your marathon is based on your ability to run just below your lactate levels but then lactate training is dropped from approx. the 5 week block / final mesocycle before the taper, hence the confusion. I also see it as more beneficial to run hard for 40 mins and understand where that limit is for a race, rather than a 90%+ effort for a few minutes, several times. Plus I think I recall P&D suggesting it takes more time to recover from VO2 max sessions, than tempo. Thanks.
Comments
My guess anyway.
Come over onto the p&d tread if you want to have regular p&d discussions.